Kolkata: Former Calcutta High Court judge C S Karnan was released from jail on Wednesday after serving a six-month sentence for contempt of court.
“Judge C S Karnan was released from prison on Wednesday after serving six months of imprisonment for contempt of Supreme Court,” his counsel Mathew J Nedumpara said.
The sentence was awarded by the Supreme Court in May.
Karnan left the Presidency Correctional Home premises around 11.00 am, his wife Saraswati Karnan said.
His wife and elder son, who reached here Tuesday night from Chennai, accompanied him.
Karnan was arrested from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu on June 20 after he had evaded the police for over a month. The Supreme Court passed the six-month jail sentence on him on May 9.
Karnan is the first sitting high court judge to have been sentenced to jail.
A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by chief justice of India J S Khehar, had asked the West Bengal director general of police (DGP) to take Karnan, who was on a warpath with the apex court for months, into custody.
The Supreme Court had earlier issued a bailable warrant against the judge to secure his presence before it in connection with the contempt case.
Karnan had appeared before the apex court on March 31, a first in the country's judicial history, and asked for restoration of his powers as a pre-condition for his re- appearance, but the plea was rejected.
Karnan, who had enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1983, was appointed a judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. He was transferred to the Calcutta High Court on March 11, 2016.
He was transferred from the Madras High Court for his repeated allegations against and run-ins with the then chief justice and fellow judges of the court.
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